Plastic pellets are getting into the food chain via the oceans and this is an international problem crossing ocean boundaries. We need plastic that will break down in the oceans.

Ever wondered how a plastic bottle gets from your nearest beach to one of the giant trash gyres? A cool interactive site can show you a path, using the help of a rubber duck to navigate. Drop the digital duck anywhere in the ocean, and Adrift.org.au will model the movement of plastic from that spot over ten years

The film starts with noting 50 % of the world’s population lives in urban areas and by 2050 this will increase to 80%.

Life in a mega city is both enchanting and problematic. Today we face peak oil, climate change, loneliness and severe health issues due to our way of life. But why? The Danish architect and professor Jan Gehl has studied human behavior in cities through 40 years. He has documented how modern cities repel human interaction, and argues that we can build cities in a way, which takes human needs for inclusion and intimacy into account.

This is the main thrust of thinking that drives Gehl and his associates: by building cities that encourage citizens to reclaim public space, the city (and even megacity) can become a more inhabitable space for humans.

He also uses statistics eg How many people pass this street throughout a 24 hour period? How many percent of those are pedestrians? How many are driving cars or bikes? How much of the street space are the various groups allowed to use? Is this street performing well for all its users?

Jan Gehl made his first studies in Italy and later he inspired the planning of Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen, for 40 years. His ideas inspired the creation of walking streets, the building and improvements of bike paths and the reorganization of parks, squares and other public spaces throughout this city and in many other cities in the Nordic region. Around the world cities like Melbourne, Dhaka, New York, Chongqing and Christchurch are now also being inspired by Gehl’s work and by the developments in Copenhagen.

This is probably a well know story by now, but really worth a revisit as I think about the power of art. I viewed the film 2012 Wasteland that follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys back to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump. Filmed over 3 years he finds an eclectic group of 'catadores' or garbage pickers of the recycled materials in the dump. We get to know their back-story and the way this extraordinary act of art consequently changes their lives forever. Muniz's initial objective was to paint the catadores with the garbage, but something much more eventuates through his collaboration with these amazing people who engage in creating the actual pieces before they are photographed. It's more than a series of paintings as they begin to reinvent themselves.

He recreates photographic images out of the garbage, that were exhibited in London, sold as individual art works and photographic pieces and generated prize money from various art and film awards... and the funds went back to the catadores. I was so moved watching this journey, to see these amazing people present with such dignity and the journey that Vik himself goes through. The power of the process is evidence of the transformative power of art. “We are not pickers of garbage; we are pickers of recyclable materials,” Tião, an impoverished Brazilian catadore, or trash picker, declares to a talk-show host.

So, what is the role of art in sustainability?,” asks the editor of The Guardian’s environment section, as they highlight a collection of animal portraits by Joseph Zammit-Lucia, and the accompanying article where Zammit-Lucia argues that for a truly sustainable future, we need more artists, novelists and musicians in the business world. Rational, data-driven decision-making is largely ineffective when it comes to sustainability,because data is by definition about the past.Read the article at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/art-sustainability-imagination-create-change

Is this public art or a building facade....either way it will have a great impact on the environment, thanks to the environmentally friendly wooden skin erected by French architect Stephane Malka on student housing in Paris.The wooden skin is constructed on the exterior of buildings and consists of a host of pallets of varying dimensions that can be mechanically expanded or contracted, via horizontal hinges, to let in more or less ventilation and daylight as required.Malka hopes to showcase a sustainable and ecological alternative that does not require new construction by 'energyvores'. As well as its environmental benefits, it would certainly look incredible on the body of a skyscraper.

The Melbourne Mussel Choir enables members of the public to monitor and celebrate the tremendous environmental services these organisms can provide. Carbon Arts is working with the Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT) and artist Natalie Jeremijenko to realise her concept for a public artwork that uses marine organisms to collect data about and represent the real-time water quality – or, as Jeremijenko, likes to call it, the Qualities of Water – of the Melbourne Docklands’ aquatic ecosystem. One mussel can filter as much as 6-9 litres of water/ hour. By instrumenting mussels with hall effect sensors, which indicate the opening and closing of their shells, and by giving them each a voice, converting the data into sound, the artwork uses the behavior of the organisms themselves as a biologically meaningful measure of pollutant exposure in order to produce a public spectacle. Storm water run-off, local weather, and seasons will have evident effects on the Choir’s performances. The songs will map parameters such as water depth to sound pitch, presence of pollutants to sound timbre, and the rate of the opening and closing of mussel shells to sound tempo, for example. The mussels will become rock stars.

The life of Austrian photographer Klaus Pichler changed dramatically when he chanced upon a UN report on how much food we waste globally.He was so shocked by what he read that he dropped what he was doing, rushed to the local supermarket, bought food, and took it back to his flat in Vienna—where he made a point of not eating it.Instead, Klaus Pichler photographed it as it decomposed, in his place, for weeks. Klaus had to deal with mould, fungus, stench and maggots to capture the images he was looking for.The resulting collection One Third is both beautiful and politically repugnant. The name of the collection signifies how much food we waste globally every year. Underneath each photo Klaus notes food miles, carbon footprint, and water used. Members of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), who authored the food waste report, were the first to see the collection in a special showing in Rome. Right now, One Third is in Nairobi, with stops in Moscow, Vienna and California to follow. However, we've posted some choice examples here.So next time we chuck out something grisly from the fruit bowl or vegetable crisper, maybe pause and think how it could have been used before heading to landfill.

Of All The People In All The World by Birmingham based theatre company Stan’s Cafe, is a witty and thought-provoking performance piece that uses grains of rice to demonstrate the scale and enormity of human activity on earth.

Part performance, part visual art, Of All The People In All The World consists of grains of rice (each grain representing one person), placed in piles on the ground, and maintained and updated by ‘caretakers’. Just like the statistics it depicts, the work is in a state of flux; throughout the day ‘caretakers’ create new categories based on up-to-date statistics or in response to requests from the audience.

Of All The People In All The World brings statistics to life. It presents human activity in a physical form, and affords the audience a chance to reflect upon our impact on the world and each other.